Public administrations in Europe need robust Sustainability Indicators to support the conception, development, implementation, and monitoring of policies. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is essential to ensure this, taking into consideration the environmental impacts along the whole life cycle of a product (both goods and services) in a single framework, irrespective of when or where they occur.
This report summarises the outcomes of the 3rd International Life Cycle Thinking Workshop on Sustainability and Decoupling Indicators: Life cycle based approaches organised by DG JRC in Cyprus, in January 2007. More than 50 scientific experts and public administrators from 20 countries met to discuss whether, and how, to further integrate life cycle thinking into indicators in the contexts of decoupling and sustainability. Platform presentations, case studies and breakout groups recommendations are reported. The necessity for further developing existing Sustainability Indicators in relation to production, consumption, and waste, by integrating Life Cycle Thinking, was stressed by all participants. It was highlighted that the future developments must focus on providing meaningful, reliable, and consistent indicators that have a clear policy-support role, developed on solid methodological foundations to achieve broad acceptance.